25-player abilities

Impale 10 yd range — Inflicts 150% of weapon damage to an enemy and causes it to bleed for 3,500 to 4,500 damage per application every 2 seconds. for 30 seconds. Applied every 10 seconds to current target. Effects are physical damage mitigated by armor, so will do roughly ~15k damage on initial hit and ~2k damage per application every 2 seconds. Instant

Spawn "Snobold Vassal" that clings to a random player's head. Spawns up to 5.

Rising Anger — Increases damage done by 15%. Applied to Gormok every time a Snobold jumps onto a new target. Cast by Snobold Vassal

Fire Bomb — Puts a patch of fire on the ground under a random player. Does ~5k fire damage per second (resistable) to nearby players within 8 yards. Will not target players in melee range of Gormok. Cast by Snobold Vassal

10-player abilities

Impale 10 yd range — Inflicts 150% of weapon damage to an enemy and causes it to bleed for 3,500 to 4,500 damage per application every 2 seconds. for 30 seconds. Instant

Strategy

25-man

Typically, two tanks are used to deal with the Impale debuff. As soon as the first tank gets its third Impale, the second tank will taunt. Gormok impales the tank every 10 seconds, and the debuff lasts 30 seconds. Thus, the debuff on one tank will wear off just as the other tank is receiving its third impale. Each stack of the impale debuff does about 2k damage every 2 seconds. With three debuffs, that's roughly 6k damage every 2 seconds. Gormok's attacks hit hard (~15k every 2 seconds). Healers should be prepared for when the next tank taunts, so that they can immediately start healing.

Gormok hits hard, so there should be healers assigned to the tanks. Because of the constant damage to the off tank, Pallies work great: put Light's Beacon on one tank and heal the other tank. If one of the tank healers gets a Snobold, another healer needs to take over. Snobolds interrupt spell casting and stun their victims. Also, when healers run in range so melee can kill the Snobold, Gormok's stomp will also interrupt their casts.

The first Snobold appears ~20 seconds into the fight. The person with the Snobold should run into melee range of the boss, so melee can easily switch to the Snobold, and range can simply tab-target. A common mistake is to be in range of the melee players, but outside melee range of the boss, which can cause a Fire Bomb to hit the melee players. The best place to stand is in the middle of the boss, so that melee players do not have to move at all to target the Snobold. After all five Snobolds are dead, there are no more Fire Bombs.

Snobolds can be marked with raid icons (skull), as well as hunter marks.

Except when they have a Snobold on their back, casters should stay at least 15 yards away to prevent their spells from being interrupted by Staggering Stomp.

After Gormok dies, the Impale debuff can be removed from tanks through various means, such as Dwarf racial or a Pally bubble. The tank needs to quickly click off the bubble before engaging Acidmaw/Dreadscale.

Some groups use three tanks, switching after two Impale debuffs to the next tank in line.

10-man

Every 10 secs a debuff will appear on the main tank called Impale; tanks need to switch before 5 stack, 3-4 is ideal. (If the two tanks taunt when their debuff is at 8–9 seconds remaining, tanks should be able to maintain only a two-stack of the debuff throughout the fight.) Stacks wear off after 30 seconds, however Hand of Protection will removes the debuff entirely.

Snobold Vassals will also occasionally be thrown out to the raid by Gormok. The Snobolds will latch onto particular players, attacking them for a fair amount of damage and interrupting spell casting. The Snowbolds also throw Fire Bombs; all ranged DPS and healers must be on guard to immediately move out of the flames to reduce damage, as the fire hits for approximately 4,000 Fire damage per second.

Every so often Gormok will do a nasty stomp attack (Staggering Stomp)that may hit from anywhere from 9,000~ damage to 13,000~ to raid members within 15 yards and interrupting spell casting for 5 seconds. He seems to melee for approximately 13,000-17,000 damage on plate.

Issues

On 25 player heroic mode, some players are currently experiencing disconnects shortly after the start of the fight when the first Fire Bomb is cast. Currently, the full cause of this issue is unknown, but is suspected to be caused by an excess of data traveling between players due to addons, combined with the increased information for the Gormok encounter itself.

Video

10-player encounter

25-player encounter

Gallery

Patches and hotfixes

Snobolds' Fire Bomb damage has been toned down to a more reasonable amount.

Damage of Gormok the Impaler's Impale ability has been toned down to a more reasonable amount."

Hotfix (2009-09-09): "We just hotfixed the following changes to the Trial of the Grand Crusader (aka Heroic mode): Fixed a bug where the flag that prevents a creature from gaining attack speed after a parry was inadvertently left off Gormok the Impaler. This bug is fixed in normal mode as well."

Hotfix (2009-09-08): "Gormok the Impaler no longer attacks quickly after a parry in any difficulty."

Tools

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